“From you, Elie, I learned that we have to educate every successive generation on exactly what happened, and we can never, ever forget,” the vice president said via video.

Douglas presented Wiesel with the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Social Justice, saying, “You speak out against silence, you carry on the unending fight for the victim, you shine the light of truth and you shout the voice of outrage against the horror of oppression, you sound a clarion call — action is the only remedy for indifference.”